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Dispositio Diabolum

Starting this year, I will be running a series of six small adventures using MapTool, set in the lands of Elveald, Pellamar, and one other. These will be adventures for up to six paragon tier player characters. The adventures will be sequential, each subsequent one based on the events of the previous one. I expect the length of each adventure to roughly correspond to a single story segment of The Autumn Knight. The name of this micro-campaign is Dispositio Diabolum.

For the first adventure, Exordium, characters will begin at the 11th level. Characters who were previously in The Autumn Knight adventure may be used; Exordium begins five years after the end of that quest. However, no knowledge of The Autumn Knight adventure is needed to participate in this campaign. Based on past experience, one level will be gained every two or three adventures, so a character who completes the entire campaign will probably be 13th level by the end.

More information concerning setting, situation, character creation, and eventually scheduling, will be posted to this thread in the coming weeks.

Well, umi, if the scheduling doesn't conflict with my other game, I am totally down. Again, curious if the character creation guidelines have changed, but krenshaw will probably stay an academic for this one. Contemplating a defender of sorts, just not sure which.

I had contemplated a lot of classes, but as the list is still as it is, leaves out a lot I am curious about or wanted to play. Normally, I could care less about balance, but I actually can't think of a striker or controller I REALLY want to play (that I can build). So I am thinking the prescience bard, a life spirit warden, or a battle vigor fighter.

Exordium - setting notes

Here is a brief outline of the locale of the first adventure. This might help the players arrive at some decisions about their characters.

Exordium takes place in the Feywild. See http://www.penandpapergames.com/foru...209#post140209 for more information. Specifically, it is set in the County of Gwyren Ogleth, a territory in the northern part of the Kingdom of Elveald. Those of you who played in The Autumn Knight may recall that Elveald is one of the two states that comprise the Seelie nation of the Bright Kingdom. To the northeast is the Kingdom of Pellamar, another Seelie land. Pellamar is at peace with the Bright Kingdom, but the rugged terrain here makes communication difficult; trade between the two kingdoms is accomplished elsewhere.

Here, in alphabetical order, are some of the notable features in Gwyren Ogleth that may be relevant to Exordium:

Devilswood - formerly the Forest of Tirsifa, this woodland north of Rience has thoroughly earned its new name over the past three years. The crisis concerning the Devilswood should be close to the center of your characters' attention.

Eskaton - a town in the eastern part of the county, roughly the same size as Rience, dominated by a famous temple of the Drywkirdara wherein the Armor of Urien the Firbolg is kept as a relic

Fell's Holdfast - a small, walled keep occupied by a tiefling wizard in the northeastern edge of the county

Hook Street - a road that connects Gwyren Ogleth with the halfling-dominated County of Talinoat to the northwest. It runs through some fairly uninhabited borderlands between the two counties before passing through Rience and finally ending at the gates of Eskaton.

Norin Trugvad - a dwarf outpost on the southern shore of Scawmere, just east of the Devilswood. It was established by a member of the Cordilleron Clan, mostly to trade with Pellamar in the hope of obtaining mineral rights within that country.

Rience - a town of several hundred (it would be a large village in other lands) that serves as the county seat. It lies in the western part of the county.

Scawmere - a lake forming part of the northern border of Gwyren Ogleth

The campaign has begun, so the section below is no longer relevant. It is preserved for reference purposes.

In addition, here are a couple of undeveloped locations that are up for grabs should any PC wish to establish a home or base of operations:

a cottage - it is just outside of the southeastern tip of the Devilswood

a watchtower - it rests on a hill south of Hook Street between Rience and Eskaton

Most of the population of Eskaton, Fell's Holdfast, Rience, and the county in general are eladrin, with a sizable minority of elves. Norin Truggvad, of course, is inhabited almost entirely by dwarfs.

When the first session approaches, the players should agree on a common starting location among the following choices:

perra was the dragonborn warlord who went into hibernation after the caves, right? I am thinking of using him as my "in" for the game.

If so, I was thinking Ion made deals, made promises, whatever it took to get to the feywild. He and some of his tribe crossed over and finally found Perra in that tower.

After a month of nursing, he got to know Chant and company really well. When Perra was good enough to travel, Ion ordered the rest of his tribal members to take Perra back to the mortal realm. Reluctantly they did, but something here was calling him. Something about the feywild felt unnaturally comfortable. As such, he has been with Chant and Orthrum, trying to search for why the forest is calling him and where he should go to.

In that case, was thinking start at the outskirts of Devilswood as that is where the "call of the wild" seems the strongest.

Also, I never got confirmation on Kathra, SOOOO, use the warden version of Ion. For the players, Ion will mark everyone and everything he can. Also, the build of warden I chose has a very leadery subtype, so some nice extra healing and ST's.

I've not leveled up an existing character outside a campaign before. What level-up rules should we use for characters coming from The Autumn Knight adventure? Do we just set equipment & money according to the normal levels and start from scratch, or do we keep the equipment we already have as a starting point, and add to it based on level guidelines?

I will post adventure-specific rules sometime next week. The short version is that you start from scratch, but if you have a record of your character's starting equipment and funds, including minor magical items purchased with those funds (presumably those below level 6), you can take a shortcut by keeping that and adding 3200 gp for additional equipment and magic. Your level 6, 7, and 8 magical items must be replaced by level 10, 11, and 12 magical items.

An alternate method would work as follows: "pay" 200 gp worth from your starting funds and equipment for your Autumn Knight Character; advance your level 6 and level 7 items to levels 11 and 12, respectively; keep your level 8 item; and add a level 10 item. This would be equivalent to the above methods.

You may not keep all of the treasure from the Autumn Knight, because it really was meant to be a one-shot. However, as a nod to those who participated in that adventure, there will be some bonuses which I will announce later, including the possible retention of some of the treasure. The bonuses will be related to how many story segments were completed, so DiscipleofYawgmoth would have all four; Yukonhorror gets three; Palpatim would be entitled to two; and Seadogstyle to one. These same quantity of bonuses will apply whether or not the player is playing the same character, but treasure-related bonuses are only applicable if the character remains unchanged.

The leveling up process for character abilities should generally correspond to the chart on page 29 of the Player's Handbook. I will describe it in more detail in my upcoming post, but I have not yet made any decision to enact major differences.

Please try commit to the sessions necessary for each adventure. It is easier for everyone if you leave the game between adventures rather than in the middle of one.

Inform me as soon as you know if you are going to be absent, late, leaving earlier, or leaving the game.

Send your character sheet to me in a manner that I can store locally on my hard drive. I will not accept any character sheet that I have to access a web site in order to look at.

Character Background, Description, and Personality

Players are responsible for determining why their characters are adventuring together and whether or not they are past acquaintances.

Players also need to supply the background and description for their characters, including whether the character is native to the Feywild or comes from the mortal world. They should also write some words about their character's personality.

Check with me in advance for your character's Paragon Path. My inclination is to allow any from the included rulebooks, but I do want to make sure it will fit into the setting.

Once their paragon path is approved, players should include a description of how they set out on that path.

These descriptions do not have to be exhaustive. Use as many or as few words as you wish to convey the important information.

Character Generation

Usage of the rules from the Player's Handbook 3 and Heroes of the Feywild is different from the general guidelines. Posts #27 and #39 present further details, but in summary, players may be of the wilden (PHB3), hamadryad (HF), and satyr (HF) races, the runepriest (PHB3) or seeker (PHB3) classes, all of the new sub-classes (HF), and may purchase Feywild adventuring gear as part of their starting equipment. They may also use any feat that's not geared to a proscribed race, class, or sub-class and they may use skill powers. However, Berserkers may only take the Temperate version of the Heartland class feature.

Select a Background Option for your character as per the rules in the Player's Handbook 2, and restated in post #3 of the Characters and Rules Guidelines thread. Remember that you are allowed to make up your own backgrounds, subject to my approval. I am getting tired of players telling me that they chose background X just so that they could get benefit Y.

When a character race is noted as speaking Common, they speak Elven instead.

When a character race is noted as speaking Elven, replace that with "a language of your choice, other than Supernal or Abyssal."

No more than two of your feats may be Paragon Tier. (One is from gaining 11th level, and the other from retraining at 11th level.)

Characters begin the game with three magic items each: one level 12, one level 11, and one level 10 item.

This is an exact quantity. You may not combine these items to obtain a higher level item, nor may you "break up" one of these items to gain multiple lower-level items. These items are considered to be the most valuable treasures you have acquired during your adventuring careers up to this point.

You may voluntarily reduce the level of any or all of these items, but there is no compensation for doing so, i.e. you do not gain ducats of purchasing power out of such a reduction.

You may convert any of these items into ducats of purchasing power by giving up the entire item, but it is treated as a sale. This means you only get 1/5 of the item's listed value back.

Coins of the realm are Ducats. There are ducats of fairy gold and ducats of fairy silver, termed gold ducats and silver ducats. A gold ducat is worth 1 gp and a silver ducat is worth 1 cp. (not 1 sp) A "ducat" is assumed to be a gold ducat. Copper, platinum, and other metals are not used as money in the Bright Kingdom, but gems are commonly accepted for larger values.

Characters have 5,000 gold ducats to purchase equipment, magical items, rituals, and so on. The following items are not available for purchase:

Undead grafts

Residuum in quantities over 360 ducats' worth per character

Magic items over level 15, including consumables such as potions, reagents, and ammunition

Rituals from the Draconomicon and Open Grave require my approval in advance.

It is not inappropriate for paragon characters to purchase and utilize mounts. However, party cohesion should be maintained, so it may be a good idea to discuss potential purchases in advance. I make no guarantees about the usefulness or appropriateness of any mount during the course of this campaign.

It is the responsibility of the player character to see to the upkeep of their mounts. In particular, accommodations for aquatic mounts must be arranged if they are to be kept.

The canonical lack of primal spirits in the Feywild does not apply to my campaign setting. Characters who use the primal power source are allowed to be native to the Feywild.

You may transfer funds to other players. All players involved in such transactions are responsible for confirming them with me prior to the start of the adventure.

Record-keeping
For all characters, I do require some additional information that is usually not represented on character sheets. It can be a real chore to look up character's various powers, items, and so forth. I would like the following reference information:

Note which books your class features and powers come from.

If your mundane items come from a book other than the Player's Handbook, tell me which book.

Tell me which book each of your magical items, alchemical items, and rituals come from.

MapTool Version
We will play using April's stable build of MapTool: version 1.3.b86

Autumn Knight Character AdvancementSince Autumn Knight and Dispositio Diabolum share the same setting, if you played in the Autumn Knight adventure, you may use your Autumn Knight character by making the following changes:

Please follow the guidelines listed above where applicable.

Regardless of the experience you gained during the Autumn Knight adventure, your character starts with a base of 26,000 experience points, at the beginning of the 11th level, as with all the other characters, but see also the Autumn Knight Participation Bonuses section, below.

Your character is five years older.

You may change your alignment, as long as your new alignment is still Lawful Good, Good, or Unaligned and still obeys any divine class or multi-class restrictions.

Your equipment and magical items will be dealt with as described in the previous post.

A summary of the advancement to 11th level is as follows, assuming your character was 8th level.

Add +1 to all of your ability scores.

Add three times your class's hit points/level to your hit points, and add 1 more to reflect the change in your Constitution. Recalculate your bloodied value and healing surge value.

If any of your ability scores are now an even number, add 1 to your relevant attacks, damage, defenses, healing surges, initiative, skills, and other adjustments where applicable.

Add two new feats. One may be Paragon Tier. See also the retraining instruction, below.

Select a Level 9 Daily Attack Power and a Level 10 Utility Power.

Choose your Paragon Path, subject to my approval as discussed above. Gain the features for that Path and a Level 11 Paragon Encounter Attack Power.

You may retrain up to a total of 3 trained skills, powers, or feats. One of these retrainings may be to replace a Heroic Tier feat with a Paragon Tier feat.

For 7th level Autumn Knight characters:

Add +2 to two of your ability scores and +1 to the remaining four.

Add four times your class's hit points/level to your hit points, and add 1 or 2 more depending on whether you increased your Constitution by +1 or +2. Recalculate your bloodied value and healing surge value.

For all of your abilities that you increased by +2, and if any of your other ability scores are now an even number, add 1 to your relevant attacks, damage, defenses, healing surges, initiative, skills, and other adjustments where applicable.

Add three new feats. One may be Paragon Tier. See also the retraining instruction, below.

Select a Level 9 Daily Attack Power and a Level 10 Utility Power.

Choose your Paragon Path, subject to my approval as discussed above. Gain the features for that Path and a Level 11 Paragon Encounter Attack Power.

You may retrain up to a total of 4 trained skills, powers, or feats. One of these retrainings may be to replace a Heroic Tier feat with a Paragon Tier feat.

Autumn Knight Participation BonusesFor players who played through one or more of the Autumn Knight story segments, they may add one of the following additional benefits to their character for each story segment they played in:

+1000 xp

+1000 ducats of starting equipment or funds

DiscipleofYawgmoth, who made it through the entire adventure, may, at the player's discretion, forgo all of the above bonuses and instead increase one of the three starting magical items by one level.

For example, Palpatim, who participated in the Fiaell and Aufeis story segments, may choose +2000 xp, or +2000 ducats, or +1000 xp and +1000 ducats.

In addition, if players are using the actual characters from The Autumn Knight, they may retain the use the following specific items from that adventure provided they were in the Aufeis story segment. These items must still be "purchased" normally and the character who wound up possessing the item at the end of the adventure may lay first claim to the item:

It should be noted that none of these items will be integral to the Dispositio Diabolum campaign. In particular, items listed above that are related to the Empyrean Wonderland will be of dubious utility and value.

The other items mentioned in the Autumn Knight player rosters are available if they weren't used up or lost during the adventure, but they are more-or-less standard magical items and equipment. If a value is listed for the item, it may be purchased at that exact amount. If a price is listed for the item, it must be purchased at 5x the listed price.

Last edited by Umiushi; 01-08-2012 at 08:40 PM.
Reason: expanded rulebooks and abbreviations